MEASURING WITH NO STANDARD
I don't think I understand the pending march on Washington. Some have said they're marching in the name of justice and in opposition to the threats Trump poses to the rights won by women over the generations and to the worsening of discrimination and plutocracy, along with very legitimate concerns relating to the environment. I get that. Sign me up. But why this? Why now? Have you been asleep for the last twenty years?
George Bush and Barack Obama made no noticeable improvements in racial or gender equity; both exacerbated income inequality, did nothing to curtail the influence of money in politics, and failed to hold institutions or individuals to account for the criminal implosion of the US and global economy. (In fact, each handsomely awarded the very criminals responsible.) Both carried out extrajudicial executions (even of US citizens) from ground, sea, and sky all across the globe. (For equivalent lunacy to Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, Donald Trump would have to receive the Fields Medal from the IMU, or something...) Both Bush and Obama also drastically, and scandalously, escalated fracking and offshore oil extraction – but folks are suddenly mortally concerned about what Trump may do? And if your concerns are for undocumented workers and immigrants (which I think they should be) then give some thought to how Obama dramatically increased harassment, deportations, surveillance, and wall building above and beyond anything Bush could get away with. (Don't take my word for it. Obama himself declared in 2014 that, "today, there are 3,000 additional Border Patrol agents along the Southwest Border and our border fencing, unmanned aircraft surveillance systems, and ground surveillance systems have more than doubled since 2008.") Why did none of this actual, material, backwardness stir the same mass protest and a popular global response we see over the hypothetical today?
At the end of the day (though obviously hateful, ignorant, and incompetent) Trump is not really the problem and no one needs Trump to find common cause. Certainly you needn't be upset at mere presidents or do the work of speculating about future failings. There are whole global institutions (sexist, phobic, violent, criminal organizations) that have been at work for millennia, and at every level, undermining basic human rights and well-being, threatening whole communities with violence, kidnapping, and torture, as well as actually physically abusing people (everything from carrying out bizarre medical experiments to sexual assault.) The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and many others have called out the Catholic Church for these innumerable crimes against culture and humanity. Even to speak personally, while a deeply disturbed and disturbing character for sure, Trump is not half as sexist, phobic, or confused as the handful of churches I've had the pleasure of attending (in the 21st century all across Canada). On his worst day, with a nuclear arsenal and the world's largest a military at his disposal, Trump will seek and achieve far less human suffering than the Church, or just religious demagoguery generally. The man has done and proposes to do relatively little yet there are more than 600 sister marches planned, on six continents... What? Really? I mean, you don't have to be a feminist to notice that all organized religion is patriarchy and the Catholic Church one of the worst offenders. So why aren't there weekly million person marches against the Church? Who else (across the globe) actively prevents women's basic rights, campaigns against basic healthcare, fights against rational end of life care, keeps whole communities in poverty, protects and thereby encourages sex offenders, and has consistently been on the wrong side of history on almost every issue of consequence for virtually all of Western history?
By all means, please revolt against your recently elected officials; but when you're done with that maybe you'll go after those who've done wrong and take on your actual oppressors.
Comments